Nick

“In her 1988 biography of [Frances] Burney, Margaret Anne Doody said as much: "It is as if there were a quota for female fiction writers, preferably no more than one per century or at most per half-century. We have one already in Austen, the position is filled."... The Smurfette Principle has proven especially applicable in the formation of the Western literary canon. Between women writers, you have to beat the best or you don't get to play at all.”
― Rebecca Romney, Jane Austen's Bookshelf